Microsoft wanted to build an online marketplace where people could buy products from various retailers, pay for them using a single shopping cart, and choose from a bunch of different shipping options, according to Wall Street Journal report.

But a Microsoft spokesperson told us the project, which was recently cancelled, wasn't intended to compete with ecommerce giants like Amazon.

"It is inaccurate to characterize Project Brazil as conceived to compete with Amazon or eBay," the Microsoft spokesperson said in an email.

Microsoft has dabbled in ecommerce before with Live Search Cashback, a program launched in 2008 which paid people for buying products found through its search engine. That was eventually renamed Bing Cashback, and Microsoft shuttered the program in June 2010.